Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Milne says coalition dishonest on costings (AAP) - ( 4U5TR4L14 )

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne says she’ll move in the new parliament for changes that would require parties to submit policies for costing as they are released.

She said the coalition had been really dishonest by withholding its final costings until the second-last day of the campaign.

“The government has submitted 61 policies to Treasury, the Greens have submitted 74 policies to the parliamentary Budget Office (PBO). The coalition have submitted zero. That is just wrong,” she told ABC radio.

Senator Milne tipped the coalition would use its proposed Commission of Audit to admit they underestimated costs and overestimated savings and then slash 20,000 public service jobs rather than 12,000.

She said it was time to change the rules.

“In the next period of government I will be moving to change the PBO rules so that the there’s a requirement for the budget to assess policies as they are released during the election campaign,” she said.

Senator Milne said the Greens would continue to oppose numerous coalition policies including repealing of the carbon tax.



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